Boulevard of Broken Dreams
by evilvash
Summary: Tomoe is killed before she can testify to a murder, and its up to the gang to find out who did it.
1. With You

'Huh, the adress is from the U.S. I wonder who it could possible be from?' Kenshin said to himself.

"Dear Ken-chan it's your big sis, don't worry, I wouldn't write unless I wasn't under witness

protection anymore. That's right, they finally caught the person and I can come home now. My

plane will arrive at the Tokyo International Airport at 11:00pm, May 6, so make sure some one's

there to pick me up. See you then, and say hi to everyone for me."

Sincerly,

Himura Tomoe

"Kaoru!" Kenshin yelled.

"What's got you so excited Kenshin?"

"Karou, I just got a letter from Tomoe, she's coming home!

"Really? Did she say when?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes, May 6."

"Ack! That's tomorrow. I'm gonna have to call Tae and tell her that I can't make it to work today,

other wise I'll never be able to get the house ready for her in time!"

"Don't worry Kaoru, she knows we don't have a lot of room, so I'm sure she'll stay somewhere else

until her house is ready to live in again."

"But she's my sister-in-law, it wouldn't be proper to have her stay somewhere else."

"She can stay at Enishi's for a few days while you get the house ready, and then she can stay here while her house is taken care of."

"Yeah, I guess your right, after all, I'm sure he would like to spend some time with his sister too. And he has enough room, thank you Kenshin."

The next day at the airport

"Tomoe-san! Hey! Over here!"

"Sano-chan, where are the others? Don't tell me no one else came."

"Sorry to say so, but, yes, Kenshin couldn't get any time off 'cause he took a whole week off a bit ago due to being sick. But don't worry, he's fine now."

"That's good, that means I won't feel bad when I smack him for not coming," Tomoe said with an evil grin.

'Heh, she sure is different from Kenshin or Enishi, or even than when I first met her two years ago. Of course, her fiance just died a week before I met her, so I gues that makes sense, this must be closer to the real her. Kenshin always did say she was full of life, but I didn't realise how much until now. At least she doesn't seem quite as bad as Jo-chan, yet.'

"Here's my luggage, Sano-chan, mind helping me with it? Here, you take what's in this cart, and I'll take what's in that cart." She said this as she pointed at the carts, the one she was going to take had her purse and a small travel bag, the one he was going to take was so full that some of the things were about to fall out.

'She's worse than Jo-chan, she's as bad as Meg, and she only makes me work so much 'cause she's my wife. Maybe Akira was spared from the toture by being killed. gaa! Don't think things like that Sano!'

"Well, are you going to take them or not? And here Ken-chan talked about how kind and strong you are, and you wont even take few pieces of luggauge for a woman!"

'That's a few?' he thought to himself. "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking how you kinda remind me of my wife, that's all."

"Oh, what a sweet thing to say."

'That's what she thinks,' Sano thought in his rooster head of his. "Well, I better be getting you to Enishi's before it gets any later. Come on, the car is

just one section over."

"Ok."


	2. It's Been a While

So, where's Enishi?"

"He's still in Hokkaido. He requested to be allowed to come here as soon as he heard, but he won't be here until tomorow morning," Sano answered.

"Oh, so how is my little brother doing anyway?" Tomoe asked.

"Um, ok, I guess. Kenshin will know more than me though, he'll be home soon. Until then Kaoru can fill you in somewhat if you'd like, we'll be by there shortly."

After a moment or two of silence, Sano couldn't stand it anymore. "So, what's it like in America, and where did you stay?"

"Hm, well I can't tell you an exact location, in case the police use it in a witness protection program again. But, I can tell you this much, it was on the west coast, with a high Asian population. They did this for two reasons, one was so that in case those after me found out I was there, it would be harder to find me, amoung others of my race, and the other was so that I would feel a bit more at home. It was nice though, I got to practice my English. It had been a while, so I was a bit rusty, but I was able to get along ok. As for how it was, in some ways it made me think of Japan, just more mixed races, which was kind of nice. I got to learn more about other cultures and all, the main thing I didn't like was not being in contact with those I knew over here, and that people seem a bit ruder over there then here, though acording to the older ones, people here are ruder than when they where my age."

'Ah! I wish I didn't ask! Is she ever going to stop?' Sano thought to himself. 'Doesn't matter, we're here, so she can talk to Kaoru now.' "Well, we're here."

"Oh, so soon? I was having a wonderful chat with you too, well maybe some other time."

"Uh, sure", Sano said, hesitantly. As Sano started to grab some of the luggage, Kaoru came out to greet them.

"Tomoe its so good to see you again!" Kaoru said as she ran up to her sister-in-law. "Here let me help you with those."

"Oh, thank you Kaoru-san, at least someone here doesn't have to be asked to give help," Tomoe said as she looked over at Sano.

'What's she looking over at me for?' Sano thought to himself.

"Kenshin wasn't able to get off of work early unfortunately, so it will be a few hours still before he gets here. In the mean time, can you please tell me what it was like? But we'll work well we're talking. Its been a few months since anyone's lived here, so it needs some cleaning."

"Sure Kaoru, and after I tell you what it was like over there, please tell me what's been going on since I left. I'm sure a lot of things have happened while I was gone." 'I feel so out of the loop, I didn't think so much could happen in just 14 months. Of course, I didn't think that I would be gone that long either.' Tomoe thought to herself. 'Enishi's joined the military, Kaoru's had her baby, Sano's gotten married. Before I left Ken-chan said he was just seeing someone, not even engaged yet. My how swiftly things can change.'

"Tomoe, Tomoe," Kauro's voice slowy drifted into Tomoe's thoughts. "Tomoe!" Kaoru yelled.

"Oh, sorry," Tomoe said, "my mind was drifting, is all. What is it you wanted?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to dust the furniture or wash the windows."

"Oh, I'll dust, thank you."

"Ok."

After a few minutes of silence, Kauro spoke up.

"So, Tomoe-san, how are you doing? I mean you've been gone so long, and you had to change your life so much. So, you know, how where you able to do it?"

"I-I'm not quite sure, Kaoru. I guess I just thought of Enishi and Kenshin and, well, all of my friends and family, including you, Kaoru." Tomoe then turned to look at Kaoru. "Are you crying Kaoru?"

"Don't worry, Tomoe, its just that what you said was so nice of you to say. Thank you, Tomoe, thank you."

"You're welcome Kaoru-chan," Tomoe said with smirk.

"Wha?" Kaoru responded. "Chan? Chan!?" After this Kaoru smiled evily. "I'd be careful eating supper tonight if I were you, Tomoe, you never know what might be in it."

"Yes, well, I will just have to make dinner then. It would probably be better then what you'd make anyway." Tomoe said with a Megumi Laugh.

Some time later...

"Thank you for your help, Tomoe. It made it go a lot faster."

"You're welcome, Kaoru. So when will Kenshin be home?" Tomoe asked.

"Should be any minute now."

And then, any minute later, the door opens, and in comes Kenshin.

"Ken-chan!" Tomoe yelled.

"Tomoe, you're home!", Kenshin exclaimed.


	3. Almost Home

The evening of the last chapter

"It's good to see you again sister."

"And it's good to see you again, and its good to be home again," Tomoe said.

They both sat in silence for a bit, until Kenshin spoke up.

"So how..." he was cut off.

"Later, if you don't mind Kenshin, I've had enough people ask me what the U.S. was like for one day."

"Um ok, but actually I was going to just ask if you enjoyed your stay over there."

"Oh," Tomoe mused, "well if thats all, considering the circumstances, not to bad."

"Well, this one's glad to hear that."

"So tell me," Tomoe asked, "how's our little brother doing? I heard he joined the Japanse self-defense ground force."

"Yes, yes, that he did. I was as unhappy about hearing that as well, but I was able to except it after a while at least."

"Well, just because you've excepted it, doesnt mean I have to. He sure will get an earfull from me when I see him."

"I am sure he will. While we are on the subject of Enishi, he left me a message at work today. He said he should be

ariving in Tokyo tomorrow morning around 10:00 a.m."

"Well that's good to hear," Tomoe interjected, "I guess that means we'll have to work hard at cleaning up my house tomorrow.

I really don't think that you two have room for me and Enishi, even if it is only for a few days. Especially since you have the baby now.

It's still hard for me to think of myself as an aunt now, it all just happened so sudenly, just like when he, was, was..." Tomoe stopped in

mid-sentence and started to cry. Kenshin got up and walked over to his sister to sit down next to her. "I-I'm sorry Kenshin," she sobbed out, " here you and Kaoru are doing so much for me and all I seem to be doing is crying about him, even after two years."

"It's ok Tomoe," Kenshin said as he rubbed her shoulder, " you don't have to apolgize for anything. You never got a chance to see him after the funeral, did you?" She shook her head. "Well, if you want, I can take you over tomorrow morning before Enishi gets here, ok?"

"Ok, thank you Kenshin," she said as she gave him a hug. "Well now, since I've told you guys about my stay over in America, how about you catch me up to speed on things here?"

"Hhm, ok sis."

Later the next day..

"Enishi!" Tomoe called out waving to her brother.

"Sister!" he called back, as he ran up to his siblings.

Well, thats it for this chapter, sorry for the long wait, maybe someday I'll get more schelduled with tyhis and update regulary.

Well, until then, ttfn!


End file.
